european hype

no matter what, every year in the draft there is the same type of player, the european dude who everybody hypes up until hes a lottery pick. this draft its ricky rubio. however this time, hes not a 6-10 or 7" dude who takes 3s all day. according to draft experts, his strengths are his handle decision making and "iq" (which to me, iq is a load of crap). but, despite being from europe, aka jumpshots r us, his weakness is his shot. does anyone else buy the hype?

I've lost like 30 points in the last several hours because I am telling this reality to everyone.

90% of the people that praise Rubio haven't even seen him play a single game. They watch 2 minute video clips of him making a fancy play and they assume it is consistent. They are all caught up in the media hype.

The kid averages 2.4 pts and 2.3 turnovers in the Euroleague. His team only played him in 5 of 10 Euroleague games.

I honestly won't even feel bad for the kid because he acts like a cocky, arrogant little brat.

i am not saying he will suck, even though the only place he could become a valuable player is ny, but im saying, there is a little too much hype about him. he plays in europe, where all american scrubs go to become the kobes on their teams, and people are quick to judge him because of 3 minutes of nice handle and nice passes. last time i checked a game is not 3 minutes, let alone a season.

I never buy into European players but I like the 2 prospects from spain. Rubio is hated on because hes not extremely athletic. Claver isnt getting much love but he looks like the toughest European player I've seen. These 2 guys dont look like Euro-softies and I think they can have strong careers in the NBA.

His team didn't sit him out from games. He was injured the beginning games and was having a tough time when he first came back because he had surgery on his right wrist. And Rubio didn't only play well in the olympics, he's dominated international competition. Don't say he was held out of Euroleague games, do your research, he was named Mr. Europea, which is the top European basketball player. And he didn't average as good numbers as Patty Mills because Patty Mills was the go to scorer on his team. Rubios role was to play defense and set up his teammates, which he did admireably because he got his team to the Finals. He had Pau Gasol and Rudy Fernandez to score.
The pont is, he's done everything that's been asked of him, what else do you want him to do? 51 point triple doubles at FIBA competitions, guarding Chris Paul, the Mr. Europea award, been praised by USA olympians. He is overhyped, I will admit, but there's a reason the media has given him attention. The kid is so young, he still has a lot of time to develop. Only time will tell if the hype is worth it, but don't discredit him because of it. It's not his fault he's done everything that's asked of him.

I think most Basketball fans would've watched the Olympics and saw Rubio play. I mean, I know I waited to watch the Spain games before making up my mind and even if some of the competetion isn't good in the Olympics he still played very good for someone at his age. Can everyone just leave the kid alone and wait until he is in the league at least for 3 years then make your choice on bust or not. How is he cocky and a brat? Please don't say because of not wanting to play for OKC or Memphis because that's more on his agent and he needs to make a profit so going to a good better market will bring in money and will be able to afford the buyout without a problem and the kid obviously isn't use to losing so why wouldn't he want to be with a contender. Plus, Pau Gasol and Juan Carlos Navarro both have said Memphis isn't exactly the best place to go when coming over. Name me some Spanish Players that haven't done good in our league? Raul Lopez? He got badly injured. Navarro was good as a rookie, both Gasols are doing better then average, Calderon is really starting to look like a future all star, Wally S. was really good, but has dropped off, Rudy Fernandez? No comment. Jorge Garbojosa was good when over here. Only one who hasn't done so great is Sergio, but many say he needs to be in the right system. Point is, get off his **** already, he's a kid from another country just doing what he loves yet tons of Americans hate on him. If he were black people wouldn't be so harsh. Americans just love for foreigners to fail. When it's 2011 then tell me what you think about him until then there isn't any point to judge. Dude hasn't even stepped on an NBA Court. (Yes, obviously this is alot and obviously I'm a fan of Rubio.)

I don't know if he'll be good or not - he certainly has a ton of potential. I just hope the Kings don't trade up to get him. If he falls to them & they deem him the best PG on the board, fine. But the deals that have the Kings moving up range from the ridiculous to the asinine & if there is a nugget of truth to any of them, the Kings would be wise to just take a wait-and-see approach in regards to this draft & Rubio.

From what I've looked at, there's not too many lottery-based players coming from Europe. Since that's the case, it's hard to suggest that there's a connection between European players and them being busts. That's like a statistician saying American people don't like foreigners when he only interviews 20 people (14 happen to not like foreigners). The sample size is too small and leads to an erroneous conclusion.

The only way we can determine whether European players are busts is if more European players are taken in the lottery. Right now, that's not the case therefore there can't be an argument.

What are your definitions of a bust? A lot of the players you mentioned as busts are solid role players in the NBA and some of them have been injured from the start and havent really been able to show what they can do. Others that you mention as allstars or solid players really arent. I would consider Yao a bust because he hasnt done what he was drafted to do which was lead his team to a championship; it took him 7 years just to lead them out of the first round of the playoffs. technically youre right he is an allstar as far as the allstar voting is concerned but in my eyes he just looks like a complementary player. if every team had 12 kobes or 12 lebrons they would have payrolls of 300 million a season.

before i can even read anymore i just had to adress this...ive played in spain and have seen rubio play 9 games in 2 years..he has skills and potenial but he is overhayped..thats first off second he DID NOT DOMINATE international competition..he averged 4pts 3rebs 3 ast 2 turnovers in the olympicsso you might wanna do youre research ..he was hurt during the euro leauge games but so was others and he didnt play well at all...also he didnt win the top player award he won the other award for the top player under the age of 20 (or 21 not sure which it is) so that excludes 99 percent of the best players over there.

josh nice to see you giving input on some of these international players. Since you have played with a lot of them I would like hear more from about what you think of this years international draft prospects. Do you know anything about Macvan, De Colo, Norel, Jerebko, etcc.... I'm just curious who you think is overrated and who has a chance to make it in the league.

pretty good players but not particularly ready...second round picks or players that should go back for another year...this is a pretty weak year for euros..another this is even if some have the same talent as some of these college players it takes them a min to get used to the nba game because over there most of the players arent as fast or as athletic....but if alof of them played in europe and then went to college then the nba..the draft would be alot different because theyd have a chance to get used to the game over here and you add the best of euro talent and nba taletn